PortAventura

“What surprised me the most about Kairos Future was the ease with which they understood our needs, transferred their knowledge and work with us adopting it, so we can achieve our goals” Ángel Arenas, Head of Strategic Analysis at PortAventura. 

PortAventura is an iconic tourist destination in southern Europe, located in the heart of Spanish Costa Daurada and conformed by:

• PortAventura Park: theme park with rides, shows, restaurants and shops.

• Caribe Aquatic Park: aquatic theme park with different attractions.

• Hotels: four thematic hotels with all the facilities needed.

• Beach Club: restaurants, activities and pools for guests and not guests at PortAventura hotels.

• PortAventura Convention Center: facilities for business meetings, conferences, with capacity for 4,000 persons.

• PortAventura Golf: three golf fields, golf school and championships.

In 2008, PortAventura turnover was of €166 millions, served 3.6 million visitors with a labor structure of 4,000 employees.

Context
With the intention of becoming a tourist destination per se, rather than just a thematic park, PortAventura diversified its services and began the construction of PortAventura Golf. With this ambitious strategy the company try to fight business seasonality and assure visitors in PortAventura all year and not just in the central months. However, the golf market was unknown territory for the company and the area of Catalonia in general, that do not has many areas or facilities for the practice of this sport, more and more popular in Europe. Moreover, in seeking to consolidate the range of international visitors to PortAventura and with the latent possibility of new connections between Scandinavia and Reus by low cost airlines, the company was interested in defining traditional tourism opportunities in the Scandinavian market.

About the Project
PortAventura and Kairos Future found great similarities between what was proposed and needed, Ángel Arenas, Head of Strategic Analysis at PortAventura says “what surprised me the most about Kairos Future was the ease with which they understood our needs, transferred their knowledge and work with us adopting it, so we can achieve our goals”. Both companies decided to focus on two very relevant projects, because they were in development. First, know the trends and motivations of the major European countries to choose PortAventura as a destination for golf practice. On the other hand, get information that allows in later efforts to develop PortAventura tourism from the Scandinavian market. Arenas says, "I think the main difference between Kairos Future and other companies is in its strategic approach and its attempt to go one step further in the subsequent analysis of market research, in this way, in addition to obtain first hand information of tourism features on markets of interest and necessary information to face the new business, we obtained strategies for the consolidation of attack plans on each project”. As part of the results of this project, we found that the Scandinavian market is a susceptible market to be attacked by PortAventura and can become an important leisure market for the company. Furthermore, it was confirmed that the European market is essential to maintain the new Golf business running. These findings have resulted in trade agreements with tour operators in European markets analyzed, which have resulted in the increase of visitors to PortAventura Golf. In addition, the research conducted of Scandinavia market will allow the company to anticipate to the connection of the area with Scandinavia and to develop knowledge for the consolidation of business in the future.

Tools used by Kairos Future
- Scandinavian Study on Tourism’s Trends (STTS)
- Ad Hoc Study on European Golf’s Future
- Review of PortAventura Golf offer at European level.
- Workshops with board of directors.
- Development of a Nordic Market Operational Plan.